»07/30/2012GERMANY - US - MIDEASTBerlin and Washington to sell weapons to Mideast nations to boost Mideast stabilityThe German government confirms talks are underway to sell tanks to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The US plans to strengthen Kuwait defence with missile and radar systems. Some experts warn this might harm human rights and increase the power of local dictatorships.

Berlin (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Germany and the United
States continue to sell weapons to their allies in the Middle East, Qatar, Saudi
Arabia and Kuwait. In recent months, the latter have expressed interest in
acquiring more arms, including missiles and tanks worth billions of dollars.

As
a result, the German government has come under fire with Chancellor Angela
Merkel's foreign policy described as two-faced, pro-peace at UN and NATO
summits, and pro-war and arms sales to countries that do not respect human
rights and religious freedom.

The United States is not doing much different. Last week,
the US
Defence Department, Pentagon announced plans to sell 60 PAC-3 systems, 20
launching stations, four radar systems and control stations. Last year, it reached a 30-billion-dollar
arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

German
news weekly Der Spiegel said that
Chancellor Merket and her government wanted to sell weapons to key countries in
the region to maintain stability and avoid outside troop deployments in cases
of conflict like those in Iraq and Syria.

This
is part of a broader German strategy to hold back the Iranian threat through
strategic alliances with Sunni regimes. However, some wonder what would happen
if weapons fell in the wrong hands.

Markus
Kaim, a security expert at the Berlin-based German Institute for International
and Security Affairs (SWP) has doubts about the strategy.

Selling weapons to totalitarian regimes like that of
Saudi Arabia or factions, like those in Syria, could actually increase
instability.

In
the 1980s, the US outfitted the Taliban in Afghanistan with modern weapons to
resist Soviet invaders, only to find themselves with one of the cruellest Islamic
regimes in the world.

Western
powers, including Germany, sold tanks and other heavy weapons to Indonesia, which
used them against West Papua rebels.

The
latest example is Saudi Arabia, which sent troops and tanks into neighbouring Bahrain
to crush pro-democracy protests.

EGYPT - ISLAMWhat Tayeb and Sisi said is big step towards a revolution in Islamby Samir Khalil SamirThe grand imam of Al-Azhar slammed literalist interpretations of the Qur'an and the Sunnah, as fundamentalists and Islamic terrorists do. He supports the urgent need for Islam's reform, especially in terms of teaching lay people and clerics. He also calls for an end to mutual excommunication (takfir) between Sunnis and Shias. Egyptian President al-Sisi chose to fight the Islamic state group after it beheaded 21 Coptic Christians, whom he called "Egyptian citizens" with full rights.

SAUDI ARABIA - ISLAMFor head of Al-Azhar, religious education reform is needed to stop Islamic extremismFor Ahmed al-Tayeb, it is urgent to come up with new educational programmes to avoid "corrupt interpretations" of the Qur'an and Sunnah. Islamic terrorism undermines the unity of the Muslim world. He blames Mideast tensions on a "new global colonialism allied to world Zionism". a speech by the Saudi king is read at the conference.